2005 IKONOS Image of St. John Utilized to derive Benthic Habitat Maps (IK_184799_0010000.img)

Abstract:

Benthic habitat maps of the nearshore marine environment of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands were created by visual interpretation of remotely sensed imagery. The objective of this effort, conducted by NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment - Biogeography Branch in partnership with the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), was to provide spatially-explicit information on the habitat types, biological cover and live coral cover of St. John's coral reef ecosystem. One-meter panchromatic and four-meter multi-spectral data from the IKONOS satellite sensor were purchased for the mapping area. Photo-interpreters accurately and reliably delineated boundaries of features from this IKONOS imagery as they appeared on the computer monitor using a software interface.

Planar coordinates are encoded using Row and Column
Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 1.000000
Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 1.000000
Planar coordinates are specified in meters

The horizontal datum used is D_WGS_1984.
The ellipsoid used is WGS_1984.
The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.000000.
The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257224.

This product served as source information for a fine-scale assessment of the status, abundance, and distribution of marine habitats of St. John. The NOAA effort provides the U.S. National Park Service with increased technical capacity for ocean exploration, management, and stewardship. Direct implications to management measures include evaluation of management efficacy, a spatial framework for improved monitoring sampling design, improved assessment of human-use impacts, and marine spatial planning to support alternative marine protected area boundary alternatives.

Bands 1 - 7: Geo-referencing of the imagery was performed using PCI OrthoEngine module. The NITF IKONOS imagery were orthorectified using the Rational Functions extracted from the NITF, then further supplemented with stereo ground control point positioning using a robust polynomial math model through bundle adjustment of all the satellite scenes.

Bands 1 - 7: PCI OrthoEngine Pansharpening module was employed to create a high-resolution color image to be used for visual interpretation by NOAA scientists. It was applied to the IKONOS imagery to increase the spatial resolution of the 4 m multispectral data to the panchromatic data resolution of 1 m.

Bands 5 - 7: The method for removal of sun glint described in Hedley et al. (2005) was applied to the IKONOS imagery to remove specular reflection from the sea surface. Reflection of solar radiation on non-flat water surfaces often results in areas of bright white sun glint in remotely sensed imagery. Typically, sun glint forms bands of white along wave edges on the windward side of nearshore environments. Sun glint can obscure bottom features and should be removed before habitat delineation.

These data were prepared by an agency of the United States Government (NOAA). Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data have been used by NOAA, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by NOAA as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by NOAA in the use of these data or related materials.